The present invention generally relates to surgical instrumentation and methods for such procedures such as, for example, a total joint replacement within a patient.
Various endoprosthetic devices are known for repairing or replacing joints in a patient. Specifically, it is known to use an endoprosthesis to replace a damaged ankle joint. The ankle joint is a comparatively small joint relative to the weight bearing and torque the joint must withstand. These factors have made the design of total ankle joint replacements technically challenging. Total ankle replacement has been investigated since the 1970's with initially promising results, but the procedure was essentially abandoned in the 1980's due to a high long-term failure rate, both in terms of pain control and improved function. However, researchers have continued to investigate new designs, which can be broadly subdivided into constrained and unconstrained designs. Constrained designs offer the advantage of greater stability, but with decreased mobility and increased stress at the bone implant interface, potentially leading to a greater risk of early loosening and failure. Unconstrained designs provide improved range of motion in multiple planes, but at the expense of stability. Early devices investigated were implanted with cement fixation, which in recent years has given way to cementless designs. One such cementless, non-constrained mobile bearing device that has proven to be successful is a total ankle replacement. An example of the total ankle replacement, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, is further described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,130 and is commercially known as the S.T.A.R.® or the Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement System.
Total joint replacements, such as the S.T.A.R.®, have been implanted to repair damaged joints using a combination of cut guides and free hand cutting and shaping to sufficiently prepare the bone contacting the total joint replacement.
It would be desirable to reduce the amount of measuring, free hand cutting and/or re-mounting of cut guides to the remaining healthy bone structure to efficiently and accurately prepare the resected tissue surface receiving the total joint replacement with repeatable results and minimum bone removal.